Police investigating hate speech and death threats
A public chat channel has been branding individuals as apostates.
08 Jan 2019, 9:00 AM
The Maldives police launched Monday an investigation into hate speech and death threats after a public chat channel started branding individuals as apostates.
The ‘Murtad Watch’ (Apostate Watch) on Telegram identified and posted information about people who spoke out against an island magistrate court sentencing a woman to death by stoning earlier this week.
“We have observed a string of hate speech and threats ensuing from recent conversations on some social media platforms,” police tweeted. “While we investigate these, we urge both sides of the conversation to refrain from making derogatory remarks, especially threats to persons”.
In April 2017, liberal blogger Yameen Rasheed was killed by a radicalised group of young men who believed he was guilty of blasphemy and insulting Islam, according to police.
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